Every month, Seth Anderson (Weifield’s CEO) pens a new ‘CEO Connection’ column for our company’s monthly newsletter, WiredIn — each addressing a different relevant issue that Seth wishes to expand on for the month.
We are excited to post the latest of Seth’s columns, here, for May, 2019 — discussing Weifield’s 10-year BHAG (Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal!)
BIG. HAIRY. AUDACIOUS. (GOAL!)
“You have to set goals that are almost out of reach. If you set a goal that is attainable without much work or thought, you are stuck with something below your true potential.” ~ Steve Garvey, Professional Baseball Player
Growing up in a small town in northern Minnesota really gave me time to think and dream of what could be. When I was young, I remember spending hours on end planning and daydreaming how things could be different in the world.
I think I got a lot of my dreaming from my grandpa, who always seemed like he wanted to tinker with things. I remember him making this massive crane out of an erector set, with no instructions. It turned, had multiple switches, magnetics to pick things up, etc. The crane was amazing and it was one thing I didn’t take apart until I knew how everything worked.
We had to pretty near, or as my grandpa used to say — ‘pertnear’ — create many of our own toys to play with when we were kids. I remember when my older brother and his friend used to play guns. They didn’t buy them, they gathered up old materials from my dad’s carpenter business and made elaborate guns out of wood. Of course, being a young brother, I had to build all the same stuff, so I would try to build the G.I. Joe weapons.
As I grew older, I set my vision on how to get to my dreams and ambitions. I remember writing down in our high school where I wanted to be in ten years and I put that I wanted to either be running a large company or owning a small company. I am sure to many this didn’t seem like much, but when you are from a town with a population 210, it was a big deal. I am sure my friends and classmates thought I was crazy. Luckily for me, none of them told me…they just let me go on dreaming.
Well, here we are today, executing the vision that was set out years ago in my childhood. I never knew how to accomplish goals, I didn’t know if it was going to be easy or hard, I had no ideas about who I would meet along the way, or what hurdles would need to be overcome. Since starting in 2002, we have set some amazing goals. Sometimes we hit them and sometimes we miss them, but each time we have learned, adapted, built, and overcome. The wonderful people that have built this company had taught me that no goal is out of our reach.
So….what is the goal now, many of you might be wondering? Many of you have heard about us going to new locations, but you may not know all the reasons why. Well, here it is…as a management group, we got together and started discussing our vision and really wanted to put some thought and inspiration behind our goal. This made me think a lot about how do we package up the awesomeness of everyone and what we can do in one short sentence. Not only that,the goal had to be Big, it had to be Hairy, and it had to be Audacious. I first thought about the timeline. I am thinking I have about 12 to 13 years before I need to pass the reins to the next person, so I am thinking we need to accomplish this goal in the next 10 years.
The next thing I considered was locations. Could we make the goal happen in one location or will it take more than one? When I first came to Colorado, I was researching the best areas for construction and I was looking into five different areas. Since I was from a small town and never really traveled much, I was prepared to go anywhere. I know when I was young in my career I wanted the opportunity to travel, so giving someone the opportunity to travel within the safety of one company was very important to me.
Now the Big part… being that people are so important and we want to create as much opportunity for growth as we can, we set our measurement on electricians and how many we could give an opportunity to. Now it also had to be Hairy… so we want to make sure that we can also be the biggest and the baddest. Finally, we need to be Audacious, so we are taking on industry and figuring out how to improve and make it better.
This finally was the answer for our company BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goal). Drum roll please…by 2030: 5 locations, 1,800 Electricians, doing the biggest, baddest, and most challenging projects in the areas with most innovative technology!
This is not going to be easy, but it will be great. Now it is time to rally the troops and ‘get’r’done.’ God Bless!
